


thoughts that stay inside

by sevensevan



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Beach Day, F/F, Fluff, willow is just a baby gay with a big dumb gay crush on buffy okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 22:49:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17517299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevensevan/pseuds/sevensevan
Summary: The Scoobies have a beach day, and Willow has been having some thoughts. Ficlet for @jenny-calendar on tumblr: "I'm going for a swim. Do you want to join me?" for a ship of my choice.





	thoughts that stay inside

**Author's Note:**

> just assume the scoobies are like, somewhere around, doing scooby things. set somewhere in high school when people weren't sad i guess?

“I’m going for a swim.” Willow looks up from her book, blinking against the harsh glare of the sun. “Do you wanna join me?”

“Swim?” Willow repeats. Buffy takes a step forward, her shadow falling across Willow’s face, and Willow blinks away the sunspots in her eyes so she can see Buffy’s face. Buffy’s smiling, and Willow’s stomach does that familiar oh-my-god-she’s- _pretty_ swoop that Willow’s eighty-three percent sure it isn’t supposed to do around her female friends.

(Her stomach is right. Buffy  _is_  pretty. It’s an utterly cloudless day, blue sky in every direction, and the sun is lighting up Buffy’s hair and skin. Willow swears she can see Buffy getting tan as they speak, and she’s not sure if she wants her skin to look like that or just wants to touch Buffy’s and see if it feels any different in the sunlight. Which is a stupid thought, Willow knows how tanning works on a cellular level and if anything, her skin would just be dry from the sun and sand, but—

—Willow’s been having a lot of stupid thoughts lately, and a lot of them concern Buffy.)

“Yeah,” Buffy says, grinning down at Willow. “It’s a beach, silly. Come on.” She reaches down and grabs Willow’s arm, starting to pull her to her feet.

“But—” Willow drops her book and goes with Buffy, not even a little bit reluctant. “Books.”

“But  _ocean_ ,” Buffy says, gesturing expansively at the water in front of them. “Books will always be there, but today, we have ocean.” She walks into the surf and looks back at Willow, who is still standing on dry sand. “And you have  _me_.” Buffy smiles at Willow, widening her eyes. Willow takes a few steps into the surf, catching up to Buffy.

“I’ll always have you,” Willow says without thinking. She immediately turns a shade of red that lands somewhere between her hair and the sunburn she’s undoubtedly currently acquiring. “Um, I mean, you’ll always be there, too.” Buffy’s smile slips for a moment, and Willow knows where her mind has gone: drowning in that cave,  _dying_ , very nearly staying that way—

“Yeah,” Buffy says firmly. “You’ll always have me, too.” Willow smiles, and it hurts a little bit, because she  _knows_  what Buffy means and it’s not what Willow wants her to mean—

—but Willow isn’t supposed to want things like that, so she keeps smiling and walks farther out into the surf.

“Well, aren’t you coming?” she says to Buffy. “Water’s great!” Buffy grins mischievously and follows Willow farther into the ocean.

“It sure is,” Buffy agrees. “You wanna feel more of it?” Willow frowns, then she catches on and her eyes go wide.

“Buffy—Buffy,  _no_ —” Buffy scoops Willow up into her arms, and Willow has just enough time to be awed by the strength packed into Buffy’s tiny body before she’s thrown nearly ten feet out into the ocean.

“I am— _so_  going to get you for that,” Willow splutters as she rights herself. Buffy just laughs as Willow charges at her very slowly through the waist-deep water. “C’mere!”

(If Willow pays a bit more attention to the feeling of Buffy’s skin beneath her fingertips than strictly necessary when Buffy lets her catch up and shove her over, well, that’s a byproduct of the stupid thoughts and no one’s business but Willow’s own.)

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr @daisys-quake and on twitter @thoughtsintoink. keep an eye out for my upcoming fuffy au. leave a comment and kudos if you enjoyed.


End file.
